Pope Francis sends first tweet

The newly elected Pope Francis I, who held his first Sunday mass this morning, also sent his first tweet today from the @Pontifex account.

“Dear friends, I thank you from my heart and I ask you to continue to pray for me. Pope Francis,” said the message.

The same words were tweeted through the pope’s other eight accounts, each represented by a different language—Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Polish, Arabic and Latin.

His predecessor, Pope Benedict XVI started tweeting from the @Pontifex account in December.

After announcing his resignation, all of Pope Benedict’s tweets were erased from the feed and the account name was changed to “Sede Vacante,” a phrase in the Catholic Church that means the pope’s seat is vacant.

Shortly after the conclave selected Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as pope, the account name holder was changed to Pontifex and tweeted out “Habemus papam franciscum,” Latin for “We have a pope, Francis.”